Morning gang. Coastal NC preparing for Tropical Storm Andrea, first named storm of the year. Supposed to be a rain event, which my weeds will be thankful for. Actually, I put in 10 new boxwoods, and several Azalea plants, as long as there's no flooding, the extra water will do them good.

Dub, "hurricane" is a bad word, isn't it? So is the amount of insurance we had to pay this week for just flood insurance alone. I keep thinking we're overdue for something but pray it continues to escape us here in NC.

I'd sure rather live inland and prepare for a "land hurricane" aka blizzard than live on the coast and worry about being washed out to sea! One could be dead either way (the 1940 Armistice Day blizzard was just such a tragedy), but in a blizzard bodies could be recovered come Spring, at least.

I wasn't planning on a medical lesson, but I just got a phone call from my sister. Our brother Phil just had an MRI because of back pain. He was told he has a large abdominal aortic aneurysm (AAA). A dissecting AAA is one condition to rule out when someone presents with a chief complaint of back pain. I don't know if his is dissecting, or not, but that can be a life threatening situation, as the weakened aorta wall can rupture.

The condition tends to be familial, and we have it on both sides of the family. Both of my doctor brothers have had surgical repairs, after one of them accidently discovered his own AAA using an ultrasound on his own abdomen for practice! Neither of them had any symptoms.

Since my brother Phil tends to trust that God will heal him directly, without medical intervention, we're praying he recognizes and responds to the Lord's direction for healing. Thanks for your prayers!

BeachGrandma wrote:Carol still cannot post anything on the Porch but she can read what's here. Here's the latest news from her that she asked me to post.

I would imagine that she remembers there are different sets of passwords/usernames needed for general FW and for the FW forum. Each must be entered correctly in the right place. Also, the letters are case sensitive.

Maybe she needs to completely erase her password/username entries in general FW and start over with that one. Then, go on to the forum password/username entries.

Just a thought...

Don

John 14:6Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

Pumped 3.5 inches off the vinyl pond at 5:30a, so far the TS is just a weak rain event. Morning light reveals no wind damage. I guess Friday will progress as usual. Y'all have a great day in God's world.

In past years I did a lot of flying for business purposes and also extensive vacations. Two or three of the business flights could be best described as "white-knuckle-arm-rest-gripping" experiences.

Event #1 took place in the late 1960's when I needed to fly from Minneapolis to Denver. The big Western Boeing 707 took off normally, but then, slowed to circle numerous times over nearby farmland. While circling, I heard repeated mechanical groaning sounds plus heavy clunking and scraping noises.

After about 20 minutes, the pilot announced that the landing gear was stuck in a partially retracted position. He said they would try to lower it manually and return to Mpls. The co-pilot came into the passenger cabin and removed a large piece of floor carpeting from the aisle. Then, after un-bolting an access panel, he lowered a long hand-crank tool down through the access hole and began to turn the crank handle attempting to manually lower the landing gear.

After the crank wouldn't turn any more, we flew back to the airport. All aircraft left the area while we flew low over the tower so the underside could be quickly examined. The gear appeared to be fully down, but was it locked? There was no way to know for sure.

All passengers assumed the crash position as we came in for the landing. When we got very close to touching down, I quickly looked up to peek out the window. It became even more exciting when I saw numerous fire trucks racing along beside our plane as it landed.

Well, the gear held, and I took the same plane to Denver the next day after they repaired a major leak in the hydraulic tank.

~ ~ ~

Event #2 happened in the early 1980's. Do you all remember the passenger plane that crashed into the river while on its approach into Washington National Airport?

Well, I was on my way to Wash. D.C. on that day. My plane was following closely behind the one that crashed, and was the next one to land. I knew there was something wrong when our approach was aborted, and we suddenly went into a steep climb. I recall looking out the window, but didn't see the crash below us because it was snowing heavily.

Instead of being diverted to another airport, we returned to Mpls. On the way back, the pilot explained the problem, and that he had a bird's eye view of the crash as it happened.

~ ~ ~

There are a couple more of them, but enough for now.

Don

John 14:6Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

There are four states that have very few earthquakes, FL and SD are two, don't remember the others, but sorry, the U.S. has actually the worst weather in the world. Now, if you want the best climate in the U.S., there's San Diego, CA. But face it, this is the way the world is, and it's not going to be perfect and free of hazards until Jesus returns.

deejay wrote:There are four states that have very few earthquakes, FL and SD are two, don't remember the others, but sorry, the U.S. has actually the worst weather in the world. Now, if you want the best climate in the U.S., there's San Diego, CA. But face it, this is the way the world is, and it's not going to be perfect and free of hazards until Jesus returns.

I understand that my state of MN has had a few very small earthquakes. However, they were probably too small for anyone to notice.

Over the years I have often visited "earthquake territory" places in this country where they are common, but have never experienced one there either.

The closest thing resembling an earthquake at my house is when my crazy dog decides to run top speed through the hallway. Her thundering paw-beats set off the door bell chimes.

By the way, I think there was a 3.0 EQ near Coleman, SD about 40 years ago. That is about 25 miles from the little SD town where I was born and raised.

Don

John 14:6Jesus said, "I am the way, the truth, and the life. No one comes to the Father except through Me."

No airplane flight problems (haven't flown on a plane but about a half dozen times) and no earthquakes that I'm aware of, but in these times, one never knows. I was awake for Hurricane Hugo to come blasting through where we lived, but our house wasn't damaged. There was a great deal of debris, but with underground wires, we had power after several days in our neighborhood--not so in most of the surrounding area. One of our pine trees did fall on a neighbor's house. I have seen, too, the devastation of tornadoes several places not too far from where we lived. I'm thankful for the ultimate shelter from all of life's storms that we have in the Lord.

Verna wrote:No airplane flight problems (haven't flown on a plane but about a half dozen times) and no earthquakes that I'm aware of, but in these times, one never knows. I was awake for Hurricane Hugo to come blasting through where we lived, but our house wasn't damaged. There was a great deal of debris, but with underground wires, we had power after several days in our neighborhood--not so in most of the surrounding area. One of our pine trees did fall on a neighbor's house. I have seen, too, the devastation of tornadoes several places not too far from where we lived. I'm thankful for the ultimate shelter from all of life's storms that we have in the Lord.

Amen, Verna! I just wrote two little stories about bad plane trips, highlighted the entire post to copy before going to preview to be sure I wouldn't lose anything......and hit "paste" by mistake instead of "copy." Lost it all, and I'm too discouraged to generate the post all over again. You'd think I'd learn!

What I began writing was that I held on for dear life to the scripture "Underneath are the Everlasting Arms!" during my worst plane experience.

Picking up small branches as a result of the TS, nothing more, just yard trash.\Plane flights... Back in the 60s coming into Orlando on National Airlines, we had to put all of our watches shoes and glasses into plastic bags and had to bend over and hold our knees; I understood it was to be a "hot landing" due to flap problems. We landed with fire trucks following us, but the pilots managed to control the plane and get it stopped. Stairways were rolled up to the plane and we exited with our little bags, scrambling to put on shoes, and put on busses and taken to the terminal. I remember a lot of prayers, but no screams.

Then in the 80s I was on a United Flight that had to land at a small airport, for whatever reason I don't know, and we were bussed into Tallahassee.

I have been on flights that bumped their way across Oklahoma. And on fights I was sure might fall from the sky due to age. Try taking Dominican airlines sometime .... All in all, the Lord has seen fit for my flights to land relatively safely over the years.